“Through the first seven games of the season, I didn’t think we could shoot,” Reeder said. “I learned we can. We shot real well.”

And the lessons did not stop there from the Panthers’ four-victory run to their second straight championship in the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic.

“With four games in two days, you can find out how tough you are,” Reeder said. “Our kids are pretty darned tough. Our defense was awfully, awfully good.”

The Panthers claimed a second title in their second trip to Pinckneyville with wins over DuQuoin (68-44), Tolono Unity (70-46), Olney (44-34) and Pinckneyville (55-46).

Jersey hits January with an 8-3 record. That would be worthy of smiles for most programs. Given the Panthers’ recent history, it’s cause for a parade down State Street.

“We’re pretty thrilled about it,” Reeder said of his team’s record following getaways of 1-6, 1-4, 0-5 and 0-5 the previous four seasons. “But we’ve had two practices since the New Year and we’ve kind of taken the attitude that we’re 0-0 now.

“It’s been since ’03 since we’ve won the Valley, so the boys are pretty focused on that. And they have the confidence that we can win our own tourney. It’s not going to be easy, but they’ve got some pretty lofty goals.”

A Mississippi Valley Conference championship and a 20-win season have been elusive goals for Jersey. The Panthers have celebrated just one MVC title in the last 20 years. And that 2003 championship also produced a 24-7 record that was their last visit to 20 victories.

This early success was not unexpected. Jersey was the preseason pick to win the Valley with a returning core of seniors Kyle Steckel and Kyle Obertino and juniors Jake Varble and Luke Shively.

And all have been good as advertised. Steckel, a 5-foot-11 point guard, is a three-year starter who earned first team All-Valley honors as a junior. He leads the Panthers in scoring at 13.6 points per game while handing out 3.6 assists.

“He’s been awfully good,” Reeder said.

The all-tourney selection committee at Pinckneyville concurred, naming Steckel the Classic’s Most Valuable Player. Olney opened its semifinal against Jersey in a box-and-one defense focused on Steckel. Reeder said Jersey’s first three possessions all ended with Steckel penetrating the lane to score twice before dishing to an open teammate for a 3-pointer.

“That was it for the box-and-one,” Reeder said. “With five guys focused on him, (Steckel) still got in the lane. We have been running, pretty well, for 32 minutes and he’s been the key to that.

“He’s taken the job of point guard awfully seriously and he’s done a really good job.”

The 6-5 Varble and 6-3 Shively — both all-tourney picks at Pinckneyville — have also been double-digits scorers for the Panthers, with Shively averaging 12 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, and Varble at 10.9 points and 9.1 rebounds.

And those numbers don’t reflect contributions at the other end of the court, where Shively has been shut-down defender in the post to free up the versatile Varble for duty where required.

“With that luxury,” Reeder said, “Jake has been guarding anybody from a point guard to a power forward.”

Obertino joins Steckel in the backcourt — Pinckneyville coach Bob Waggoner called the Panthers’ guard play “the best we’ve seen all year” — and is scoring 6.6 points per game.

The Panthers have played just one home game – a 55-47 loss to Marquette Catholic on Dec. 7 – and face a stretch of three straight MVC road games at Civic Memorial on Tuesday, Highland on Saturday and Triad on Jan. 14 before playing host to Waterloo on Jan. 17.

“If we can get those four, we’ll be in the driver’s seat with everybody else having at least two losses,” Reeder said of the Valley race. “This is a big couple-week stretch for us. Nothing’s going to be easy, I don’t care who the favorite is.”

Jersey opened the season at the Centralia Thanksgiving Tournament, splitting four games that included losses to unbeaten Centralia and Belleville East. The Panthers led East 11-0 before falling 41-36. “We felt like we let that one get away,” Reeder said.

The current six-game winning streak started with victories over Carlinville and Southwestern and includes five wins over Class 2A foes along with Class 3A Olney.

“The Centralia Tournament is awfully tough and then we played some smaller schools,” Reeder said. “I guess time will tell if that hurts us or helps us. I like the fact that our kids have some confidence with some wins. In the past, that hasn’t been the case.”

Reeder said the Panthers will return to Pinckneyville next season, “unless they tell us we’re out.” Jersey is 8-0 in that gym and found its shooting touch there last week.

“We had struggled with like three- and four-footers and we didn’t shoot the 3 real well,” Reeder said. “In this tournament, we got a little rhythm.”

And confidence. Valley victories and Jersey Tournament success are the January goals before February figures to cast the Panthers as a leading title contender in a Triad Regional field also including Marquette, Highland, CM and the host Knights.

“They’re keeping themselves grounded,” Reeder said of his team. “This has been an easy group to coach.”